This past week me and my class of Guiding Eye pups graduated from our 13 week puppy program. Every monday Mom, Dad and I went to class and I had to work really hard. I also got to play with the other puppies. While in this class I’ve learned sit, down, stay, over, close, back, touch, come, heel, paw, follow me, loose leash walking (its a job not a command) and a few others. It’s been a lot of work, but when I do a good job mom gives treats (well dad does too). Now we only have class every other week! Phew!
Here are a couple pictures that were taken from at our last class.
Mom Dad and I after I finished! Look how big I'm getting!
This is Dad working with Adler, another pup in my class. I was working with Adler's human when this was taken.
So apparently I have a new nick-name. Last night I had puppy school. It was so fun to be able to hang out with some other pups my age. They know how to play! Mom and dad try, but really, they can’t create the kind of fun that 4 other puppies my age can. I was so excited to see the puppies that I had some trouble focusing on what mom was asking me to do at times. I couldn’t quite understand why we had to be quite at times. Sometimes the humans would make all of us sit quietly while the humans listened to each other talk. I wanted to liven things up a bit, so i would jump up (if mom had been successful at getting me to sit or “down”) and start barking. That would usually get someone else barking too — often Bev, my sister, who was sitting next to me. The problem is that mom didn’t want me to bark and be excited. She would try to distract me with some food and get me to work on my sits and downs and stuff. Well,like I’ve said before, my middle name is “will work for food” so usually that would work — until I remembered I wanted to have fun and play with the other pups again!!
I am proud to say that no only was I the youngest (well by a few minutes anyways) and the smallest pup there last night — I can also be the loudest. And I am the party pup. I was usually the one who would get the other pups going in a game (or try too) and when it was actual play time I was never intimidated by the bigger pups — i pushed my way right in and made sure I was at the center of all the fun — and sometimes that meant being at the bottom of the heap! I think this is why they kept calling me the Little Instigator!
I should tell you a bit about what I learned last night. I mean, its a puppy school where they teach us new tools to help us to develop into being a guide dog! Last night was similar to last week. We worked on sit, down, close, stand and stay as well as “give” and “take”. I do pretty well with a lot of those commands, but the purpose of “stay” eludes me. Why should I “stay”?? I’d rather follow mom or go run around or something. But it seems to be pretty important that I learn this, because they kept saying “stay” to me, so I guess that means I’ll be practicing that a lot with mom and dad this week. I hope that I’m able to figure it out! i’ll get more rewards if I’m able to do it right. But I am glad to be able to say that my down is getting better! I used to go down, get my food and jump right back up again, ready for mom (or dad) to reward me for my excellent sit. But now I actually pause while i’m down for a moment or two — often because mom gives me more food the longer I say put. I’m also a little bet more patient when I am served my meals. Breakfast is really hard, because I’ve gone without food all night long, but I manage to keep my butt on the ground for a moment (a really short moment) after my food gets put down. Mom and dad seem to like this — because they won’t give me my food if I’m not being patient — so I’m going to need to continue to work on this!!
Mmmmm well I think that’s it for now. I hope you are enjoying my blog. Mom said to say she gave her film to dad to take in to be developed today — so hopefully it won’t be long before I see those photos and can post a few of them on here — so you can see how adorable I am… and how much I’m growing already!!
Tonight my mom took me to puppy school. She said that we’ll have to go every monday night until I’m a little bigger, but I had a lot of fun so that’s ok! Most of the class, including my sister Bev, started last week. So you might think that they would have a headstart on me, but I was a very good pup and worked well with my mom! You wouldn’t be able to tell that I hadn’t been working on my sit, down and stand all week! Of course, my mom had lots of yummy food with her. She says my middle name is “will work for food!” And what can I say, a dogs gotta eat!
Last week the class would get a food reward for every sit, stand or down. This week we only got one reward for doing all three in a row! If you ask me that’s a bit of a high standard for a little pup like me, but I worked hard and did well. The downs are a little tough for me still. I will need to practice that one a lot! We also learned two new commands – stay and close. You can probably all guess what stay is, but maybe close you don’t know yet. With close I need to make a semi circle between my masters legs and then sit with my butt up close and right between her feet. You’ve probably see grown-up seeing eye dogs sitting between their owners knees on the bus or subway — that’s what I’m learning to get into. I need help with a bit of food to follow, but I’m learning 
It was fun to play with the other puppies my age tonight. We are all within a month of each other age wise — but I’m they youngest (and smallest!) pup there. There are five of us: Vangie, Aiden and Alder are black and me and my sister are yellow — or as I prefer to call us, blonds. Bev is a little darker than I am — but then I’m a true platinum blond.
My mom finally got me to sit still for a couple pictures so I’ve pasted them below. Please feel free to admire my adorable-ness. I know that I’m cute and am not afraid to admit it!
Sorry ... something smells way to good to look at the camera
Say Beef!
If it looks like I'm tired here .. that's because I am....very!
